All of the friends that we were traveling with had flights that left early on Tuesday. We were taking the red-eye late Tuesday night. We had an entire day to explore. Richard chose for us to go to Sonoma. It really was unbelievable! The red rocks just appeared as we were driving and they were amazing! We had print out that Richard found on the Internet telling us the best stops to see in a short amount of time. He drove and I navigated us to all of the beautiful spots. Our selfie stick got a workout that day. I'm so glad that we had it though so we didn't have to ask random people to take our picture at each stop.
The view when we first entered Sonoma
Big Rock
Cathedral Butte
Practicing with the selfie stick!
Cathedral Rock
Chapel of the Holy Cross. This was beautiful....built right on the side of the mountain!
After lunch, we drove to the top of a mountain at the Airport Mesa. The view was indescribable and these photos do not do it justice!
Next we stopped at Red Rocks State Park. We decided to hike on some of the trails.
What? This should have said something about bobcats, too!!
River rapids!
I wish you could see the skinny little bridge we were standing on!
This was minutes before a bobcat jumped out onto the trail right in front of where we were walking. We seriously went silent for a couple of minutes. That bobcat stared us down. I had no idea if it was going to run towards us and attack us or what. We were almost to the end of the trail, but I refused to walk past the bobcat so we had to turn around and walk all the way back the same way that we had already been. Better safe than sorry!
Richard said that the bobcat probably thought I was it's Mama or a bear with the fur vest that I had on!! Ha!
After a gorgeous day in Sonoma, we made our way back to Phoenix to have dinner and then to the airport. Our flight left at 12:30am back to Atlanta. I've never been on a red-eye before and it was rough. I was sandwiched between two strangers and it was impossible to sleep. We made it to Atlanta when our bodies thought it was 3:30, but it was 5:30 in Atlanta. We left Atlanta for RDU at 7:30 and were back in Raleigh by 9:00. Georgia and a sick Karcie picked us up. We were so glad to be home, but I couldn't wait to find my bed. Karcie didn't go to school that day because she had a fever and a bad cough. Poor Georgia had to take her to the doctor on Tuesday morning for them to tell her that she didn't have an infection...only a virus. We had such a wonderful trip and I am glad that we got to experience a National Championship. We are blessed with wonderful friends to go on trips with and a great family willing to watch our sweet kiddos while we are on these adventures! Until next year......Go Tigers!!
We got up bright and early on game day. We had a large crew to organize. Our rental house was the meeting place. Our Utah and Colorado friends brought all of the normal tailgating supplies since they drove to Arizona. It was perfect and we were so thankful for all that they did to make our tailgate so great!
We were some of the first cars to arrive at the lot...surprise, surprise! They wouldn't let us in, nor could you block the street and wait in line. We had to circle around the block three times before they let us in. Once we were inside the lot we parked really close to the stadium. We had three parking spaces and it was the perfect spot! Everyone went to work setting up tables, food, flags, banners, and we were set!
I was so excited to see Libba...one of my Clemson roommates! We hadn't seen in other in years!!
How many $2 bills do you have, Shannon?!?! He was like a bank!
Time was running out so I rounded up the troops for a group picture. Sadly, several had taken walks to other places and weren't in this photo. Everyone started leaving to go in the game soon after this so we had to get the photo while we had the most people there at one time.
The day went by SO fast! Before I knew it, we were walking to the tailgate inside the stadium where the stage and all of the activities were being held. We were on a mission to see Eric Church! Richard made us stop and take 1,643,285 selfies on the way. We had to pose in front of everything!!
My man, #4 Deshaun Watson!!
#1
We finally made it to the stage and were pretty close. It was challenging trying to tell our other friends where we were located. Some of them found us. Others did not. Eric Church only played for a little while, but it was still awesome!
On our way back from the stage and up the hill to the stadium, we ran in to so many people that we knew. My favorite was my high school friend, Austin!! We literally were jumping up and down and kissing each other's faces. It has been years since we have seen each other. Austin and I played basketball together so we spent lots of time together in middle school and high school. It was so awesome to see her. On a completely different note, her husband looks JUST LIKE Dabo Swinney. I should have taken a photo of him, too! He was looking at us acting crazy!
Love this girl to death. She is hilarious and has not changed one single bit since high school!!
We also saw some of Richard's work friends there, too.
Where is your beer, Richard?
We finally made our way into the stadium. I am happy to announce that it was not nearly as chaotic to get in here as it was the ACC Championship game. Thanks to the Straups, we had awesome seats!!
Can you tell how excited we were??
We were like deflated balloons at the end of the game. We were SO ready for this win. We had WAY more fans than they did and I think our team and fans had WAY more heart. Alabama fans were so very cordial from what I saw. They were all super nice and I can't complain about them at all. However, we wanted the win SO badly!! Not that they didn't, but they have won. So. Many. Times. And we were so close. I love what Dabo has done for our team. I love the integrity that Dabo instills in our football team, our school and program in general. I truly believe that we will be back to The Natty sooner than later. I hope it's next year in Tampa, FL!
On our way back to our house in the mini-van, Shannon tried many a time to get a good selfie of all of us. Since we were no longer #1, we were all holding up #2. #2 in the country isn't so bad. So glad that we have these fun and silly friends who make a win or a loss fun!!
Brent was trying to drive us home and be in the selfie!
Once we actually stopped, he was able to actually be in the photo!!
